Leinster rugby star Jamie Heaslip has invested an undisclosed sum in Pointy, an app ventures that helps people find products in local shops. Type the name of the product into the search box and Pointy will show the closest shop that sells it.

Pointy was founded by Mark Cummins and Charles Bibby in 2014, and enables retailers to create a website listing all of their products in minutes by connecting its technology with the retailer’s existing barcode scanner and point of sale system.

With over 200,000 products on the system, Pointy says the app is helping people find everything from specialist health foods and niche cosmetics to pet supplies, gadgets and craft beers.

Co-founder Mark Cummins says the aim of Pointy is to provide a quick and painless way for retailers to make their products searchable online. “It seemed strange to me that you could find things so quickly on the internet, but you might not know what is in a shop around the corner,” he said.

Pointy retailer Brian Stenson, owner of Pet Republic says he's seen good growth each month since installing Pointy for his shop. “Customers can now search our full product range on their phones and easily find where we are located,” he said.

In Association with

According to Cummins, Pointy has secured €1.1 million in funding to date. Investors include AIB and Frontline Ventures.

Cummins previoulsy who ran a startup called Plink which was sold to Google in 2010. He subsequently worked at Google in California. Bibby did a PhD in robotics at Oxford and went on to design security systems for the London 2012 Olympics. Both founders are now working full-time on their new startup.

“The shop just plugs the Pointy device in and we take care of the rest," says Cummins. "We’ve had shops set up and go live with thousands of products in less than five minutes.”

Photo: Jamie Heaslip (right) with Mark Cummins (left) and Charles Bibby. (Pic: Andres Poveda)